Many products are the result of the processing of a web material. Paper webs, woven and non-woven textiles, metal foils, and polymeric films may each be processed from a web material into a variety of products.
The economic processing of these web materials may require the use of large diameter and large width rolls of base web materials. This processing commonly occurs on equipment dedicated to a particular base web material operated by a crew of operations personnel dedicated to the particular processing equipment. Considerations affecting the relative spacing of the respective processing equipment associated with independently processed web materials generally include the provision and removal of the base web material and any other material required for the processing of the web materials. As the rolls of base materials become larger, the relative spacing of the processing equipment also tends to become larger.
Increasingly reliable processing methods and equipment may require less than the full time attention of operating personnel. The relative spacing of processing equipment may preclude a single operator from efficiently interacting with multiple web transformation stations. Improving the efficiency and economics of processing operations may require more effectively utilizing the time of operations personnel. Achieving this improvement may require the interaction of individual operations personnel with transformation stations of multiple web materials.
Accordingly a need exists for an apparatus and method for processing multiple web materials that provides a configuration enabling a more efficient utilization of the available time of operating personnel.